See 'Gypsy: A Musical Fable' at Skylight Music Theatre

Well, it is a musical about being the ultimate show business mother, but it showcases that life under the lights isn't always as glamorous as it may seem. Gypsy still has two more weekends at Skylight Music Theater. Artistic director Michael Unger and actress Mona Swain are joining us in studio this morning for Fine Arts Friday. Thank you both so much for joining us here. Thanks for having us and helping us spread the word of this great show. Yes, we have to talk about Gypsy, as I mentioned, two more weekends here. For those who have never seen it before, what can we expect from the production? I know it's a pretty powerful message. Well, Gypsy is, by many, many very intelligent opinions, one of the greatest musicals ever written. It has a perfect book script, a perfect score. The music and lyrics are incredible. Stephen Sondheim, his second Broadway outing after West Side Story. and it is a story about ambition, family, and the need for recognition, but it's also a beautiful story about a mother and a daughter, and you are going to see world-class performances at this theater. Mona Swain is amazing as Louisa. My wife plays Rose, and she is incredible, one of the toughest roles ever written for any musical theater performer, and Andrew Varela, my producing partner's husband is playing Herbie and the three of them are phenomenal together they've also been on other shows together in the past but also the cast overall is just incredible and it's filled with heart and humor and drama and it's again one of the greatest musicals ever written so come and see it yes i've been fortunate to see a couple of shows at skylight i'm always blown away at the talent we have here in milwaukee the sets are impressive the costumes are great so i know we're going to want to make it out for this one. And Mona, you play Louise, who I know is going to kind of transform into Gypsy Rose Lee. What is that creative process like for you, getting to dive into a character and experience that transformation? It's so fun. It's such a gift as an actor to be able to play a role that gets to have such a long arc and such a huge arc in the show. It's so fun being able to play this young, shy lady who doesn't know herself into becoming this woman in just such a short time period. The musical takes place only over a few years, so it's fun. I know you pour your heart and your soul into a character and a performance. You hope it resonates with the audience. What do you hope they take away? What's maybe the message you're trying to share here on stage? That reinvention can start with not being the version that other people want you to be. You can stay more true to yourself, for sure. That's what I would say. I love that. See, that's such a relatable message for anyone, not just somebody on stage. That's what I love about theater, is you can walk away and take some of these ideas into your own day-to-day life. It's not an antique story that feels like this old piece of theater. It is really current. It is very contemporary. It has messages that speak to us, and her transformation is glorious. This is a very elegant woman, an elegant human in real life, and to dress her down in the first act was not easy. her transformation in the second act is truly revelatory it is a gorgeous performance and so proud to have her on the stage on the rest of these performers it's a great production if i may say so myself i did direct it um but please come out and see it because it's it's really worthy of being viewed these artists need to be seen yeah i mean rave reviews from michael but i i know reviews from everybody i was gonna say i know it's been a couple of weeks so what has the feedback been like so far the the critical response has been unbelievable audience response in the lobby just coming out in tears, just loving the show so much, saying it's one of the best shows they've ever seen here at Skylight. Also, with the review, the critics have loved it as well. They've gotten some great, great notices. So come and see for yourself, folks. All right, we're running out of time. Two weekends left. How do we go and grab our tickets? Go to our website, www.skylightmusictheater.org, or call the box office. The phone number's on the website as well, and grab tickets. We'll have to go. like they were saying it's gotten such good feedback and reviews from the community that we don't want to miss out on this one so go grab those tickets today and thank you both so much for joining us thanks for having us this weekend thank you more weeks after this